Court decriminalizes gay sex in Indian capital

By Fernando Vergara (AP)

A year after Colombian military agents disguised as international aid workers helicoptered Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors to freedom, an offer by their former leftist rebel captors to unilaterally free two hostages is in limbo.

Many blame President Alvaro Uribe, who says the \"drop by drop\" releases end up being publicity stunts for the rebel \"terrorists\" that complicate his military\'s efforts to end the decades-long conflict once and for all.

Colombia celebrates the daring July 2, 2008 rescue, but the joy is not shared by the family of Cpl. Pablo...

By Matt Rourke (AP)

The life of \"Charlie\'s Angels\" star Farrah Fawcett was celebrated Tuesday at a private funeral in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Her longtime companion, Ryan O\'Neal, 68, was among pallbearers who accompanied the casket, covered in yellow and orange flowers, into the Roman Catholic cathedral.

Fawcett\'s friend Alana Stewart and \"Charlie\'s Angels\" co-star Kate Jackson were among early arrivals before the hearse pulled up, accompanied by 10 motorcycle officers.

The private service lasted more than an hour as fans and news media watched from across a...

By Chris Pizzello (AP)

The life of \"Charlie\'s Angels\" star Farrah Fawcett was celebrated Tuesday at a private funeral in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Her longtime companion, Ryan O\'Neal, 68, was among pallbearers who accompanied the casket, covered in yellow and orange flowers, into the Roman Catholic cathedral.

Fawcett\'s friend Alana Stewart and \"Charlie\'s Angels\" co-star Kate Jackson were among early arrivals before the hearse pulled up, accompanied by 10 motorcycle officers.

Fans and news media watched from across a street. The service was closed to the public.

The...

By Chris Pizzello (AP)

The life of \"Charlie\'s Angels\" star Farrah Fawcett is being celebrated at a private funeral in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

Her longtime companion, Ryan O\'Neal, was among pallbearers who accompanied the casket, covered in yellow and orange flowers, into the Roman Catholic cathedral Tuesday afternoon.

Fawcett\'s friend Alana Stewart and \"Charlie\'s Angels\" co-star Kate Jackson were among early arrivals before the hearse arrived, accompanied by 10 motorcycle officers.

Fans and news media are watching from across a...

By (AP)

The Vatican says the restoration of a chapel that includes two Michelangelo frescoes has been completed.

The Cappella Paolina, or the Pauline Chapel, in the Apostolic Palace is used by the pope and is not open to the general public.

It contains Michelangelo frescoes depicting the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter.

Officials said Tuesday that the five-year euro3.2 million ($4.5 million) restoration was privately funded.

Pope Benedict XVI will inaugurate the restored chapel with a prayer service Saturday.

By ANDREW MEDICHINI (AP)

Pope Benedict XVI signed his latest encyclical Monday, a text on ways to make globalization more attentive to meeting the needs of the poor amid the worldwide financial crisis.

The document, entitled \"Charity in Truth,\" is expected to be published soon.

The pope has said his third encyclical will outline the goals and values that the faithful must defend to ensure solidarity among all peoples.

Benedict has frequently spoken out on the financial crisis, urging leaders to ensure the world\'s poor don\'t end up bearing the brunt of the downturn even though they are not...

By ANDREW MEDICHINI (AP)

The first-ever scientific tests on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul \"seem to conclude\" that they do indeed belong to the Roman Catholic saint, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday.

Archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul\'s Outside the Walls in Rome, which for some 2,000 years has been believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St. Paul.

Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first...

By Esteban Felix (AP)

President Manuel Zelaya enlisted government employees and his supporters Saturday to set up polling stations for a rogue referendum that opponents depicted as a power grab by the leftist leader.

Zelaya cast himself as the survivor of an attempted right-wing coup and vowed to forge ahead in his quest to reform the constitution, which prevents him from being re-elected.

Opponents, including a Congress led by Zelaya\'s own party, the Supreme Court, the military and others, warned voters to stay away from Sunday\'s vote, saying it would be neither fair nor safe.

\"I would...

By Gemunu Amarasinghe (AP)

Pity the king.

He has had to flee his palace, with its Graceland-meets-the-Himalayas decor, and decamp to a house up the hill. His only son, the hard-living former crown prince, has moved to Singapore. And now, in a crowning indignity, tourists are traipsing through what was once a private world sealed off by soldiers and tall brick walls.

Just three years ago he was King Gyanendra, ruling this mountain nation with absolute power as the living embodiment of the Hindu god Vishnu. Today he is simply Mr. Gyanendra Shah, a 61-year-old businessman with interests in hotels and tea...

By RICCARDO DE LUCA (AP)

Silvio Berlusconi has survived corruption allegations, a playboy reputation and his wife\'s wrath to become Italy\'s longest-serving prime minister. Now come allegations from a high-end prostitute that she spent the night at his residence and can prove it.

Berlusconi denies the claim, but there are signs of trouble ahead: Prosecutors are examining images Patrizia D\'Addario allegedly took of his bedroom and telephone recordings of him allegedly sweet-talking her _ and the Roman Catholic Church is warning the \"limits of decency\" have been breached.

A defiant Berlusconi _...

By RICCARDO DE LUCA (AP)

A high-end prostitute says she has proof she spent the night at Silvio Berlusconi\'s Rome residence after a party that allegedly featured the prime minister\'s wisecracks, his cabaret crooning, and a bevy of sexy women.

Berlusconi denied the claim, but there are signs of trouble ahead for the Italy\'s longest-serving prime minister: Prosecutors are examining images Patrizia D\'Addario allegedly took of his bedroom and telephone recordings of him allegedly sweet-talking her _ and the Roman Catholic Church is warning the \"limits of decency\" have been breached.

A defiant...

By Chris Carlson (AP)

Starting at age 4, Sheila Schuller Coleman has held just about every job at her father\'s Crystal Cathedral, from copying Sunday programs at the kitchen table to launching a private high school on the church grounds.

Now, five decades after the Rev. Robert H. Schuller Sr. first planted the church, his daughter is facing her most challenging job there yet: taking over her father\'s megachurch and its famous \"Hour of Power\" television ministry at a time of both financial and family crisis.

The church and its internationally known telecast have been bleeding dollars and...

By Ed Reinke (AP)

Southern Baptists are applauding the election of President Barack Obama but say they\'re troubled by his views on abortion and other issues.

Leaders of the nation\'s largest Protestant denomination voted Wednesday in favor of a resolution to \"share our nation\'s pride\" in the election of the country\'s first black president.

The vote comes on the second day of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville and as the group faces declining membership.

The resolution also decried Obama\'s support of abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research.

Richard...

By (AP)

The restoration of Michelangelo\'s frescoes in the Vatican\'s Pauline Chapel may have produced a special prize _ a previously unknown self-portrait of the artist.

Chief Vatican restorer Maurizio De Luca said Thursday that the face of a man on horseback in the artist\'s \"The Crucifixion of St. Peter\" could well be the artist, though he told AP Television News that nobody will ever know \"with absolute certainty that the face is Michelangelo\'s.\"

The Vatican announced earlier this week that the restoration had been completed after five years at a cost of euro3.2 million...

By (AP)

A Vatican official is lamenting that many faithful don\'t confess their sins, and says some confuse a psychologist\'s couch for a confessional booth.

Archbishop Mauro Piacenza has told Vatican Radio that the sacrament of penance, which the Catholic church also calls the Sacrament of Reconciliation, has been experiencing a \"deep crisis\" for decades now.

Piacenza, an official for the Vatican office on clergy, says fewer people distinguish between good and evil, and as a result, don\'t go to confession.

The archbishop said in the interview Tuesday that if the faithful...

By (AP)

Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines said Thursday they have killed more than 500 government troops in 10 months of fighting since the collapse of peace talks, a claim the military dismissed as propaganda.

The 11,500-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front also accused government forces of deliberately burning 2,000 houses, killing villagers suspecting of supporting the guerrillas, bombing a mosque and blocking food for displaced residents.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Romero Brawner denied the rebel claims, calling them \"pure, black propaganda.\"

The rebels are...

By (AP)

Today is Wednesday, July 1, the 182nd day of 2009. There are 183 days left in the year. This is Canada Day.

Today\'s Highlight in History:

On July 1, 1867, Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain as the British North America Act took effect.

On this date:

In 1859, the first intercollegiate baseball game took place in Pittsfield, Mass., between teams from Williams College and Amherst College. (Amherst won the nearly four-hour, 26-inning contest by the score of 73-32.)

In 1863, the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, resulting in a Union victory,...

By (AP)

Thirty-seven U.S. senators are asking Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to release a dissident Roman Catholic priest serving prison and house arrest terms totaling 13 years.

In a letter sent through the Vietnamese Embassy, the senators said the Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly had no lawyers during his four-hour trial and was silenced repeatedly by a security guard who put his hand over the priest\'s mouth, then removed him from the courtroom.

The letter also requested information about the 63-year-old Ly\'s health and welfare.

Signers included the Senate\'s assistant...

By (AP)

President Barack Obama wants to produce early results after promising to reset relations with Russia, hoping to emerge from a Moscow summit next week with clear progress on reducing both nations\' nuclear arsenals and changing the way the Russian people view the United States.

Obama\'s pursuit of a new U.S.-Russia nuclear arms pact to replace one that expires in December has dominated the attention focused on his trip to Moscow, the first stop in a weeklong trek that also will take him to Italy and Ghana.

But White House aides, describing the trip in detail for the first time...

By (AP)

The Vatican has announced the retirement of a Brazilian archbishop who caused a major stir when he declared that those involved in an abortion for a 9-year-old rape victim were excommunicated.

The Vatican said Wednesday that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the resignation submitted for reasons of age of 76-year-old Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife.

The archbishop said in May that the mother and doctors of the girl were excommunicated. The church forbids abortion, and excommunication is considered automatic for those involved in an abortion.

Brazil\'s...

By (AP)

Today is Tuesday, June 30, the 181st day of 2009. There are 184 days left in the year.

Today\'s Highlight in History:

On June 30, 1859, French acrobat Charles Blondin (born Jean Francois Gravelet) walked back and forth on a tightrope above the gorge of Niagara Falls as thousands of spectators watched.

On this date:

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

In 1908, the Tunguska Event took place in Russia as an asteroid exploded above Siberia, leaving 800 square miles of scorched or blown-down...

By (AP)

Nassau County police said a congregant at a Long Island church disregarded at least one of its commandments: Thou shalt not steal. Police said the 46-year-old woman reached over a pew and took cash from a purse while its owner knelt Sunday at Our Lady of Hope Roman Catholic Church in Westbury. Police said an usher saw the theft, and officers stopped the woman as she left the church.

Police said they determined the same woman stole cash from another worshipper\'s purse while that victim took communion May 10.

The woman has been released on an appearance ticket after being...

By (AP)

Nassau County police said a congregant at a Long Island church disregarded at least one of its commandments: Thou shalt not steal. Police said the 46-year-old woman reached over a pew and took cash from a purse while its owner knelt Sunday at Our Lady of Hope Roman Catholic Church in Westbury. Police said an usher saw the theft, and officers stopped the woman as she left the church.

Police said they determined the same woman stole cash from another worshipper\'s purse while that victim took communion May 10.

The woman has been released on an appearance ticket after being...